`Destitute' Howard Hunt

HOWARD HUNT, convicted Watergate burglar, dresses modishly and vacations in Florida. Last September he said he was in financial trouble.

By ROBERT L. JACKSON and RONALD J. OSTROW

Special to The Star

WASHINGTON Last fall, E. Howard Hunt, Jr.

depicted himself during Senate hearings as a near-destitute, wid-owed father of four, all but ruined by his participation in the Water-gate burglary.

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In reality, only six months earlier —two days before going off to jail —more than $100,000 in stock was purchased on his behalf, a portfolio

e still holds. This contrast adds one more ele-

ment of intrigue to the already mysterious ex-spy who played a principal role in the original Water-gate break-in. Hunt, 55, will com-mend further attention in the months ahead since he's likely to be an important witness in trials of the Watergate cover-up defendants and ex-members of the White House Plumbers.

There are these other unusual elements surrounding Hunt's fi-nancial activities:

—Hunt purchased the $109,872 in stock last year at the same time he was demanding $120,000 in alleged "hush money" from the White

ouse. His brokerage records, ade available by one of his law-

,ers, indicate the stock was pur-chased with part of $260,000 in flight ,insurance on his wife, Doro-thy, who died in a'. plane crash on

Dec. 8, 1972.

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—Hunt, through his lawyers, ini- tially said he had purchased no stock anywhere near the time the alleged hush money was received. Then, when reporters demonstrated independent knowledge of the March, 1973, stock acquisition, Hunt acknowledged it had taken place but said it was done without his knowledge.

bought $109,872 in stocks —Hunt, who had demanded the

$120,000 as a "priority" item to pay his legal expenses, eventually re-ceived $75,000 in cash. But he did not immediately use this sum to pay legal fees. The use to which he put specific funds is unclear be-cause he. intermingled the income.

—William A. Snyder, Jr., one of Hunt's lawyers, said the $75,000 was kept for a time in Hunt's suburban Washington home. Snyder said Hunt's daughter, Kevan, 21, put the money in a safe deposit box after prosecutor Earl J. Silbert suggested that should be done, inasmuch as Hunt revealed the cash hoard to grand jurors. Silbert said he has no such recollection. Miss Hunt de-clined to discuss it.

Hunt, a retired 20-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, im-plied he was Pi deep financial trou-ble when he appeared before the Senate Watergate committee last September. He said then in his opening statement

Isolated "I am isolated from my four

motherless children. The funds pro-ided me and others who participat-

ed in the break-in have long since been exhausted."

NOWadays Hunt—three months out of prison—vacations in Florida while his appeal is pending and enjoys attending the theatre in Washington. He dresses modishly in double-breasted blazers and bell-bottom trousers.

The $75,000 was paid to Hunt on the evening of March 21, 1973, in order to keep him quiet, according to the federal grand jury which indicted seven former Nixon admin-istration and campaign officials

Former presidential counsel John W. Dean III has testified that some Nixon aides feared Hunt might re-

veal other undercover work he had done for the White House—including the then still-secret 1971 break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psy-, chiatrist.

Hunt told the Senate committee he needed the money for a "priori- ty" item—$60,000 in legal fees he owed his lawyer, William 0. Bitt-man. The remainder, he said, was needed for living expenses for him-self and his children.

After receiving the money, how-ever, he did not use ' it to pay Bittraan, he conceded. Rather, , he paid Bittman by ' cheque the next month—a cheque drawn against his wife's insurance money.

Thus, the picture emerging from his testimony is that Hunt intermin-gled his income, principally the in-surance funds and his alleged "hush money," and made disbursements without any apparent attempt to segregate the -two main sources.

Snyder, his lawyer, said. Hunt's $109,872 in stock was all purchased by a Washington-based brokerage firm with three deposits Hunt had made from insurance proceeds and

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from no other source. • The settlement date on most of these stock purchases was March 21, 1973, just hours before Hunt received his secret $75,000 in cash in a mightlme delivery. The cover-up indictment . ,alleged Hunt de-manded the larger sum of $120,000 on five days earlier.

On March 23, 1973, Hunt went off to prison for nine months and was released pending appeal last Janu-ary.

In all, Hunt and his late wife handled more than $200,000 in Wat-ergate case payments, according to Senate committee calculations. Al-though they disbursed much of it to other defendants, Senate investiga-tors were never able to reconcile all the totals.

Snyder said the timing of the

stock purchases—occurring as Hunt demanded money from the White House—was "the damndest piece of bad luck I've ever seen" He said Hunt did not learn of the transac-tions until four months later be-cause he had given the brokerage firm, Ferris & Co., discretionary power to make investments for him:

Ferris& Co. notified him by mail after the purchases, Snyder said, but the notification was not immediately forwarded to him at the Danbury, Conn., federal correc-tional institute.

"He was sore as hell when he learned about this," said Snyder, adding that Hunt thought his money was being kept in U.S. treasury bills.

Stocks sagged However, in a March 20, 1973,

letter to Hunt from Ferris & Co. that Snyder allowed reporters to emataine, the company noted Hunt had discussed at least one of the stock purchases with Lulia Walsh, a representative of the firm. Snyder said he could not explain this refer-ence.

He said just before Hunt went to jail "somebody at Ferris got it in their head that Howard Hunt need-ed a stock portfolio." The stocks have sagged, like the rest of the market, aggravating Hunt's disap-pointment, he said.

Stanley Ragle, Ferris' general counsel, says that Hunt's version is "not a complete statement with re- spect to what happened." Ragle said he was barred from discussing it further, without Hunt's permission, because of the confidentiality of an investor's dealings with his broker.

Ragle subsequently said he made several attempts to obtain this permission from Snyder but failed.

Les Angeles Times

P 4, 431-iii

Perkelev 23 April 1974 :30 p.m. news Taped and transcribed:

Announcer L avid 3elvyn, telephone feed. from Washington]:... ....According to the Los Angeles Times today, at the same time convicted ?:Taterzate conspirator oward !IlInt was Nan depandinp; alleT,ed hush 7on.,71y from the '11-lite House, and claimins he was destitute, he ha• rare than .100,000 in a stock fun(i which the paper claims .1as of unclear oriR-in. The Times says Aunt still holds the stock, purchased in the name of Johnson :k Co. he stock fund was reportedly transferred to Hunt just two days before he went to prison. Jr. 5.6(iitioa to the stock fund, iiunt also 11.s ,250,000 worth. of insurance money, collected as the result of his wife's death in an airplane crash, plus about „75,000 . orth. of ~IlleTed. hush money. The renort on Hunt's finances came from the pa-oer's staff reporters here in '!,:ashim:ton who said they 1,1!=1 siqow-1 some of Hunt's financial records by his lawyer, illiam snyder. This is avid elvyn, for .acifica iadio in 1.:ashinp';ton.

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